Why Is Acknowledging God as the Divine Human Vitally Important?
Key Concept: To acknowledge the Divine in the Lord’s Human, or the Divine Human, is the primary of the Church (Apocalypse Explained 151).
[Those who think of God under a Human form] have all their ideas determined to the Divine, nor do their thoughts...wander in every direction. And as the Divine under the Human form, is the Lord's Divine Human, therefore the Lord bends and determines their thoughts and affections to Himself. Because this is the primary of the church, therefore it continually flows in from heaven with man, consequently it is, as it were, implanted in everyone to think of the Divine under a Human form ...(Apocalypse Explained 151:2). (See also Apocalypse Explained 328:6.)
The idea of God in heaven is the Lord; for the angels of heaven are in the Lord and the Lord is in them, and therefore, it is impossible for them to think of any other God than the Lord.... Allow me to add that the idea of God as Man has been implanted from heaven in every nation throughout the whole world, but what I lament, it has been destroyed in Christendom (Apocalypse Explained 1097:4).
No one is conjoined with heaven, and after death admitted into heaven, unless in the idea of his thought he sees God as Man, and at the same time believes God to be one both in Essence and in Person, for it is by this that the gentiles are saved; also unless he acknowledges the Lord, His Divine and His Human, for by this a man of the Christian church is saved...(Apocalypse Explained 1109:2).
Unless the Lord's Human is acknowledged to be Divine the church must perish, for in that case the Lord cannot be in man and man in the Lord ...and this conjunction makes the man of the church, and thus the church (Apocalypse Revealed 520:2).
Unless the Lord had united the Human to the Divine, so that man might be enabled to look upon and adore the Lord's Human with his mind, and thus have access to the Divine, he could not possibly be saved (Arcana Coelestia 3441).
The good of innocence, which is the good of love to the Lord, is not received by the man of the spiritual church, unless he compels himself, since he can hardly believe that the Lord is the only God, and that His Human is Divine; and therefore, since he is not in faith, he cannot be in love to Him, nor consequently in the good of innocence, unless he compels himself (Arcana Coelestia 7914).
How important it is to have a correct idea of God can be known from the truth that the idea of God constitutes the inmost of thought with all who have religion, for all things of religion and all things of worship look to God…. Without a proper idea of God no communication with the heavens is possible. From this it is that in the spiritual world every nation has its place allotted in accordance with its idea of God as a Man; for in this idea, and in no other, is the idea of the Lord (Divine Love and Wisdom 13).
Everything of the life of man, conspires, from the Lord, to the human form, the least and greatest of it. Everything of truth and of good, belonging to the understanding from its will, which is from the Lord, strives after the human form; for the reason that the Lord is Man, and heaven in its complex is a man. Hence is the human form with man; hence, also, with a spirit; hence, also, with an angel (Spiritual Diary 5556).
Why Is Acknowledging God as the Divine Human Vitally Important?
Key Concept: To acknowledge the Divine in the Lord’s Human, or the Divine Human, is the primary of the Church (Apocalypse Explained 151).
[Those who think of God under a Human form] have all their ideas determined to the Divine, nor do their thoughts...wander in every direction. And as the Divine under the Human form, is the Lord's Divine Human, therefore the Lord bends and determines their thoughts and affections to Himself. Because this is the primary of the church, therefore it continually flows in from heaven with man, consequently it is, as it were, implanted in everyone to think of the Divine under a Human form ...(Apocalypse Explained 151:2). (See also Apocalypse Explained 328:6.)
The idea of God in heaven is the Lord; for the angels of heaven are in the Lord and the Lord is in them, and therefore, it is impossible for them to think of any other God than the Lord.... Allow me to add that the idea of God as Man has been implanted from heaven in every nation throughout the whole world, but what I lament, it has been destroyed in Christendom (Apocalypse Explained 1097:4).
No one is conjoined with heaven, and after death admitted into heaven, unless in the idea of his thought he sees God as Man, and at the same time believes God to be one both in Essence and in Person, for it is by this that the gentiles are saved; also unless he acknowledges the Lord, His Divine and His Human, for by this a man of the Christian church is saved...(Apocalypse Explained 1109:2).
Unless the Lord's Human is acknowledged to be Divine the church must perish, for in that case the Lord cannot be in man and man in the Lord ...and this conjunction makes the man of the church, and thus the church (Apocalypse Revealed 520:2).
Unless the Lord had united the Human to the Divine, so that man might be enabled to look upon and adore the Lord's Human with his mind, and thus have access to the Divine, he could not possibly be saved (Arcana Coelestia 3441).
The good of innocence, which is the good of love to the Lord, is not received by the man of the spiritual church, unless he compels himself, since he can hardly believe that the Lord is the only God, and that His Human is Divine; and therefore, since he is not in faith, he cannot be in love to Him, nor consequently in the good of innocence, unless he compels himself (Arcana Coelestia 7914).
How important it is to have a correct idea of God can be known from the truth that the idea of God constitutes the inmost of thought with all who have religion, for all things of religion and all things of worship look to God…. Without a proper idea of God no communication with the heavens is possible. From this it is that in the spiritual world every nation has its place allotted in accordance with its idea of God as a Man; for in this idea, and in no other, is the idea of the Lord (Divine Love and Wisdom 13).
Everything of the life of man, conspires, from the Lord, to the human form, the least and greatest of it. Everything of truth and of good, belonging to the understanding from its will, which is from the Lord, strives after the human form; for the reason that the Lord is Man, and heaven in its complex is a man. Hence is the human form with man; hence, also, with a spirit; hence, also, with an angel (Spiritual Diary 5556).
(BACK)